BOSTON — More than 15,000 life science professionals from around the globe have descended on Boston for the BIO International Convention. The annual gathering showcases the latest advancements in science, from drugs to biofuels to cell therapy. And while the inside remained relatively calm, about a dozen demonstrators gathered outside the convention center on June 19. The protesters wanted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to speed up the approval process for an experimental cancer treatment known as T-DM1, which they say can save lives.

Looking for effective treatment

In the fall of 2006, Lorraine Heidke-McCartin, 54, was diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer: HER2-positive. The cancer is less responsive to hormone treatment and has a high recurrence rate.

“Right from the beginning I was a Stage 4 patient because the cancer had gone to my liver,” said McCartin.

Immediately she started undergoing treatment, which for the better part of 4 years, kept her cancer to a minimum. But in the spring of 2010, the medicine that had kept her stable stopped working.

“It started to grow again in the liver and I was now up to about seven tumors in my liver,” said McCartin. The lymph nodes in the area were getting enlarged and cutting off my kidney and my bladder."

So she agreed to participate in a clinical trial at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The experimental drug, called T-DM1, is specifically designed to attack cancer cells in HER2-positive patients.

A change in plans

Just as she was to start treatments, the Food and Drug Administration shut down the program at Dana-Farber. But there were still 13 other locations where trials were still going on. The closest one for McCartin was in Fairfax, Va.

“So we started traveling to Virginia in October and I got approved to be in the program. And we travel every 3 weeks to go to Virginia back and forth,” said McCartin.

McCartin said it was a hassle, and expensive — but within months, her tumors were shrinking.

“And in November of 2011 I was told they couldn’t see anything,” said McCartin.

She said her doctors won’t explicitly tell her that she’s in remission, but they haven’t been able to see any cancer over a year. And McCartin said the medication doesn’t have the same debilitating side effects as other treatments.

The next step: blocked

Still, the FDA has denied the application for accelerated approval from Genentech and ImmunoGen, the two companies that make the drug, and instead has sent the companies back to do more clinical trials.

Geoff MacKay is the chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. He said the FDA has a tough job trying to measure the risk versus the benefit of any drug.

However, he said, “I don’t know why they didn’t approve this and I think that really needs to be questioned. Anything that has the potential to save lives should go through what is called an ‘expedited review process.'"

He said the process should be made as quick as possible without skirting regulations or lowering the bar. Right now, it can take up to 15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars — sometimes billions of dollars — to bring a new drug to market.

McCartin has been staging demonstrations, protesting what she calls the FDA’s slow approval process. During the week of June 18, she and about two dozen other people protested outside of the BIO International Convention at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. She said the FDA is holding up a drug that is saving lives.

“What we’re protesting about or demonstrating about is Stage 4 people who need this drug should be given a chance to try the drug,” said McCartin. “We need something and this might be the drug that works for us.”

What, the T doesn't make you want to sing and dance? (Courtesy)

 
BOSTON — Bostonians may curse the many troubles of the MBTA, but they love to hate it. Now there’s a musical that many of us (well, those who ride the MBTA) can relate to — from the Boston sports fans who crowd the T after games, to the tourists trying to make sense of subway maps, to the college students out for a night of partying. Born out of ImprovBoston, “T: An MBTA Musical” has moved to the Club Oberon stage in Cambridge through July 13.

Melissa Carubia, lyricist and music director of the show, said the inspiration behind the musical was simply because the T is an active part of the Boston lifestyle.
 
“The T is kind of like one of those things in Boston that you can’t imagine life without. It’s like the Red Sox,” said Carubia. “When it’s bad, everybody loves to complain about it, it’s on everybody’s mind. And when it’s good, it’s just a part of the fabric of our city that we sometimes take for granted.”
 
The musical started out as a 6-minute sketch for political sketch group Mosaic and ended up becoming a full-blown musical, filled with characters like “Charlie” (as in Charlie Card), “party girls” and “bros.”
 
Jeffrey Mosser, director, came aboard the project after Carubia and writer Michael Manship approached him. After he read the script and listened to the songs, Mosser was immediately interested.
 
“I saw this as an event more than a theater piece. It was so exciting and so fun,” said Mosser.
 
The relatable stories are what make the musical an event. By doing research on the T lines, Carubia found stories and inspiration for the characters in the musical.
 
“I looked up the opinions of what people thought the characters of each line were. That crowdsourcing through Yelp, through Facebook helped me build a show that resonated with everybody,” Carubia said.
 
And for the most part, Mosser said since a lot of people have their own T story, the show really does appeal to everyone.
 
“The most important part of this story that I can tell you is it isn’t malicious toward the MBTA,” Mosser said. “It’s to tell all of our stories, it’s towards all of our audiences who all have a story about the train ... if you have your own T story, that’s the audience we have, that’s the audience we’re looking for.”
 
Even officials from the MBTA came out to have a look.
 
“At our first incarnation of the show, Richard Davey did come to see the show. He loved it; he was blown away by it,” Mosser said.
 
“He posed for pictures with the cast afterwards and got a CD. It was great,” Carubia said.
 
One of the main goals of the show is to make the audience feel like they are actually riding the T.
 
“We try to make sure that it feels like you’re on a big red train at 5 in the afternoon,” Mosser said. “We have seating right on the T, where actors are dancing right in front of you, immediately in front of you, so you feel like you’re sitting right on the train.”
 
And the most ironic aspect of this show is when it’s over, it’s too late to take the T home.
 
“That’s one of the conflicts of our show, too. One of our characters couldn’t get home,” Mosser said. “We chose this time slot full knowing that this might be the result. That just shows us the world we’re living in … the slice of life!”
 
 
 
 

To a visitor, "Wood Island" doesn't mean much. To the locals …
 
"That was a wonderful park," Scantlebury says. "Three beaches — it even had a cinder track. It was designed by Olmstead … and the airport just took it all over."
 
He lives upstairs. L. lives down the block.
 
"East Bostonians are provincial, we are. There's nothing wrong with that" she says, slicing, rolling and placing. "And if you live here you're more a North Shore shopper than you are a Boston shopper because it's easy to get to in your car."
 
The room smells of lemon, sugar, nutmeg, oil and Luyo's perfume. Scantlebury rolls out a rectangle of dough on a thick blanket of flour and starts cutting out rings. The front door slams and Luyo goes out to the ancient cash register.
 
--
 
At 60 cents per donut, how does Betty Ann's stay in business?
 
"Well, I own the building," Scantlebury says. "What people don't realize is when you're paying for donuts from a chain you're paying for the number of people who handle them." He places the rings on a wire tray that looks like it went through Korea. "I stay ahead of the bill collectors and I'm single so I only have to worry about myself."
 
When the tray is full, he lowers it into a wide pot of oil. "We've gotten quite a bit of press for being fairly unknown," he says, flipping the donuts over. No gloves protect his bony forearms — "I'm living proof donuts aren't fattening!" he cracks.
 
He shows off the real coal-fired oven built into the wall. But really, the room shows itself off: the bricks, tongue-and-groove walls and tongue-and-groove ceiling are all painted glam-rock silver. Scantlebury shrugs: "My father did that before I got here … and he's not around to ask."
 
Good and brown, the donuts come out to drain.
 
L. says, "Don't put my name in this article, please! I'm a retired schoolteacher. I don't want the kids to find me." Cut, roll, place.
 
Before she was a schoolteacher, she was a kid back when the women stayed home. Walking home on a warm night with all the windows open, "Oh, the aromas and the smells, they were overpowering," she says.
 
--
 
The screen door slams. Today is unusually quiet, Scantlebury says, going out to the front room: "Fridays are usually pretty busy — ever since 'Chronicle.'"
 
But it's 8 a.m. and people are starting to arrive. Though they come alone, no one orders for one. One woman is taking donuts to the courthouse; another, to the kids she babysits. Bob Impemba, 59, obligingly stops for a brief interview. He visits from Winthrop every month or so. "Not as often as I like," he says. "It's a dietary thing."
 
Has the place changed? "Never changed," he says, and with a grin, "Owner's pleasant."
 
"I'm still crazy!" Scantlebury responds, cheerfully. He explains, "His older brother went through St. Mary's with my older brother."
 
L. steps behind the counter for a minute. "I've been coming here since I was a little kid," she says. "And truly we survive on repeat customers. Not internet people."
 
Like JoAnn Rick of Winthrop. "I'm 75. I was 11 when I first started coming here. They used to have the bread, you'd get the hot bread after school," she says. Now $12.85 buys her "a dozen jelly" (no plural) in a box, two jelly and a cruller in a bag, and four jelly and two plain in another bag. "My husband owned a Dunkin' Donuts for years but you know what? These taste better," Rick says.
 
A woman in a red shirt comes in. She doesn't say a word. Luyo fills her order.
 
--
 
Back in the kitchen, Scantlebury tosses donuts in sugar. "The closest I've come to our jelly donuts is in Cornwall," he says. That's where he vacations. But something's missing in those.
 
L. is back at her counter. "In this country I really feel we've done a real disservice to people who do hand work or manual labor," she says. Slice, roll, place. "If you don't have a suit and tie your work has no value."
 
When she was a kid the priest had to warn people from the altar that the donuts would still be there when Mass was done. Times have, of course, changed. "There's a bagel place over in Chelsea — Katz's," Scantlebury says, pronouncing the word "kates." But, the owner told him, "'People don't want to schlep all the way over to Katz's every day to get their bagels.'"
 
He slides a tray of donuts into the unlit oven to proof. There is a long discussion of the Euro and why it's not working.
 
L. insists once more: no name. "Once I went to try on ladies' undergarments" and guess who was working at the store?
 
But you should come back on Sundays, Scantlebury says, when the shop showcase is full with pies and cakes, lemon squares, coffee rolls, brownies. And "it's like a social club sometimes," he says. "They come here, run into someone they went to school with."
 
Which may be more important than the donut.
 
Where should WGBH stop next? Leave a comment here, email the reporter or let us know on Facebook or Twitter. Subway, commuter rail, light rail, major bus depots — all are eligible.

 
BOSTON — Food trucks have come to Paris and they've come to Boston. Next up? If Paris wasn't unexpected enough, the food world's hottest phenomenon is moving into the suburbs.

A trend in the city

Stroll through the Financial District, Kendall Square or Cleveland Circle at lunchtime and you will see long lines forming around trucks pulled up to the curbs. The queue of people reflects the diverse, multi-ethnic menus scrawled on the chalkboards. Suits stand behind foreign students in well-worn T-shirts and moms balance their takeout containers on the hoods of strollers while fishing for change.

“I love them," said one customer. "There used to be the fear of the 'roach coach' but these places are really high-quality and they’re also generally cheaper than any of the offerings around here.”

On any given day food trucks line up on city streets, offering a bold variety that competes with brick-and-mortar counterparts. At one truck, for $5, you can get Sichuan asparagus with a slow-poached egg. At another truck, for $3, you can chow down on a taco filled with Chinese sausage, fried rice and black bean mayo.

Yes, gourmet cuisine has gone mobile — and now other cities and towns in Massachusetts want a bite. The Town of Brookline just launched a pilot program for food trucks offering more lunchtime options for workers and residents, and if all goes well, food trucks will shift into park permanently.

“I think the public is fascinated by food trucks,” said Anne-Marie Aigner. So fascinated that it’s going above and beyond the city limits.

Truckin' past the city line

Aigner is the founder of the Food Truck Festivals of New England. A couple of years ago, she saw how the food truck phenomenon was barreling its way over from Los Angeles and thought: Why not make a destination event out of it? Instead of having food trucks pulled up at events like the Head of the Charles or outdoor concerts, you could flip that around and make the food trucks the main event. That means a caravan of food trucks will amble their way to towns like Framingham, Falmouth, Salem, N.H., and Newport, R.I.

“People are interested in the fact that you don’t have to go into a restaurant and sit down to have a good bite," said Aigner.

People like Rick Rushton.
 
A plan in central Mass.

“I look at what’s happened over the past 4 to 5 years with urban cuisine on the go — to the desktop, to the laptop and now to the iPad. And people’s accessibility to food, and to good food, has really transformed itself,” he said.

Rushton is a Worcester city councilor. In this city, food trucks were banned a few years ago, after a heated battle between the brick-and-mortar restaurant and food truck industries resulted in a 6-5 City Council vote that left food trucks packing. Rushton is hoping that by bringing the Food Truck Festival to Worcester on July 14, fellow councilors will warm up to the idea of getting rid of the ban.

“I’m hoping that most of the city councilors are going to head down to the festival, see where the food truck revolution has gone," he said.

If you can't beat them …

Tension between food trucks and brick-and-mortar restaurants is nothing new. Some restaurants see food trucks as a threat, especially if they’re parked a little too close by for comfort. But one Somerville restaurant saw the competition as an opportunity.

“My initial take was hey, we want to get in on that action," said Rob Gregory, co-owner of the landmark barbecue restaurant Redbones in Davis Square. Redbones wheeled out its own truck when Gregory saw that this was not just a flash in the pan.

“Competition is good," Gregory said. "It keeps us all on our toes and keeps the quality of food up and quality of service for the customer. It’s all about trying to have something that people want. This is one of the most exciting times for experiments in the food service business. You can innovate and if it doesn’t work, you can try something else.”

Other restaurants are hitting the pavement as well. Even fast food chains like Burger King have launched their own fleets of trucks across the country.

“The word is getting out," Aigner said. "It’s becoming increasingly popular with existing brick-and-mortar restaurants, and the flip of that is it’s a great entry point for somebody who’s interested in getting into the restaurant business, but can’t afford $300,000 – $400,000 to build a restaurant." It takes more like $25,000 – $50,000 to start a restaurant on wheels.

Starting from the street up

Mei Li of Mei Mei Street Kitchen agreed. "The idea is to start small with the food truck and experiment with the different ingredients and have a rotating menu so we try lots of new things and let our customers try new food," she said.

Mei and her siblings Andy and Irene bought their truck this spring as their first entrepreneurial step into the food service business. The Mei Mei Street Kitchen menu exemplifies the diverse palate of second-generation Asian Americans with items like a scallion pancake sandwich with braised beef and blue cheese. She even joked about their food being Chinese food with cheese.

“We think that it’s a unique opportunity to be able to bring real food to areas that sometimes don’t often offer that for people who work everyday and are faced with the same choices," Li said. "If you’ve got a different food truck every day in front of your office, you get to try new things and have real food brought to your doorstep. We think that’s really cool.”

Next stop?

Other cities and towns think it’s cool, too. And they’ll get a taste of the food truck experience en masse throughout the summer in various towns and cities in the New England area. For a $30 entry ticket, people will be able to eat from over 20 trucks.

“Somebody out west of Worcester called and yelled at us," Aigner said. "We get calls every day. Why did you stop in Worcester? How come you didn’t come to Springfield? What about the Berkshires? How about West Hartford?”

The downside of success is that everyone wants a piece of it … or a plate.

There are 10 food truck festivals scheduled for this year, starting with an event at the UMass Boston campus on Sunday, June 10. Get the complete list. 

 
In 1 Guest, Greater Boston host Emily Rooney spends an entire show interviewing a prominent Bostonian with a story to tell. The series kicked off June 4 with Chris Stevens of Keurig.
 
BOSTON — Admit it: There’s nothing grosser than coffee from the office coffee pot. How long has it been sitting there? When's the last time it was cleaned? Apricot-cream-flavored coffee … again?!
 
Those were the questions behind the multimillion-dollar company Keurig.
 
A venture takes off
 
“People were leaving the office despite that the coffee was given for free and going to Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts because they could get freshness and convenience and variety,” said Chris Stevens, Keurig vice president of corporate relations and one of the four original team members that developed and launched the Reading, Mass.–based company in 1998.
 
The single-cup coffeemakers first became popular in the workplace — they can now be found in 13 percent of offices — and have quickly spread to the home. “It is now the No. 1–selling coffee brewer in America in terms of dollar sales,” said Stevens.
 
Stevens’ tremendous success at Keurig is just the tip of his seemingly boundless resume: he co-owns three commercial websites, a real estate business and a production company in Hollywood and is the author of “Fighting to Give,” a book chronicling a friend’s battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
 
But at home ...
 
But while Stevens’ career was soaring, his personal life was hitting heartbreaking lows. In 2004, in the span of just 12 months, Stevens lost both his brothers to Huntington’s disease and his wife to lung cancer.
 
All three diagnoses came as a shock.
 
Growing up as foster kids, neither Stevens nor his brothers Ned and Jeff knew they were disposed to Huntington’s, or that their mother had died of it years earlier.
 
“She was institutionalized and when she got sick and passed away, we didn’t realize it was from Huntington’s disease until both my brothers got sick,” said Stevens. “If you get the gene you have a 50-50 shot of getting the disease.”
 
Initially, Stevens said he didn’t want to get tested to see if he too carried the gene. But then, he had a change of heart.
 
“I have five children and finally I said, 'You know what? If something tragic should happen to me, my kids wouldn’t know,’" said Stevens. “I need to give them that peace of mind.”
 
His test came back negative.
 
Another blow
 
Also in 2004, Stevens’ wife of 27 years, Marian McBride Stevens, died from a rare form of lung cancer.
 
“She was a marathon runner, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, very spiritual — did all the right things in life — and one day she couldn’t finish a run,” said Stevens.
 
After a few more weeks of unfinished runs and difficulty breathing, Marian went to the doctors. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.
 
“There wasn’t much they could do. We brought her home and about 8 weeks later she passed away,” said Stevens.
 
Since the deaths of his wife and brothers, Stevens has become a writer and motivational speaker, sharing his story of success and loss to help raise awareness of Huntington’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s.

Have ideas for other people Emily should interview for 1 Guest? Leave a comment here or let us know on Facebook.
 

 
BOSTON — Sometimes the best way to find the flavor of where we live is … through a restaurant.
 
Not the fancy places people cross the region to see. The humble spots where people stop and get something to go — and in the process, have conversations across the counter that make life a little bit more human.

WGBH News' Val Wang is spending the next 6 months documenting these for her project "Planet Takeout": a look at Chinese food, our neighborhoods and ourselves.
 
Wherever you go, there they are
 
Every neighborhood in Boston has at least one. In the heart of Roxbury there’s Peking House in an old Church’s Chicken building. In Dorchester, Yum Yum stands shoulder-to-shoulder with nail salons and Irish bars. Jamaica Plain has Food Wall and Charlie Chan’s. They are among the almost 10,000 Chinese takeouts that dot the country, preparing more than 2 million meals every day.
 
Ever since I’ve lived in big American cities, first New York and now Boston, no place has fascinated me as much as the local Chinese takeout. Each is deeply a part of their neighborhood but also somewhat separate. The people who work there come from halfway around the world to serve Americanized Chinese food to people of every color. Those on both sides of the counter have to meet each other halfway, often at a bulletproof window.
 
This cultural crossroad teems with stories. I think of the humble takeout as a lens through which we can see both the tightly knit local neighborhoods of Boston and global immigration patterns to the city. And most importantly, we can see how the two fit together.
 
One restaurateur's journey
 
Tom Chen was born in Hong Kong. After a decade of working in Chinese restaurants he bought his own takeout in Chelsea, Mass., called Dragon Kitchen. He ran it for a decade.
 
Most of his customers were Latino. He said they tended to order three dishes: lobster sauce, shrimp fried rice and chicken wings. Every week, he sold 400 pounds of chicken wings. And because he had to adapt to his customers, he learned basic Spanish. Shrimp fried rice became arroz con camarones. Chicken wings, alas de pollo. And lobster sauce was salsa langosta.
 
Chen said he didn't know much Spanish beyond what he needed for the job, “but I try to make a living. So everybody will adjust yourself.”
 
It wasn’t easy running a takeout: mastering simple Spanish, learning the names of his regular customers and, on two life-threatening occasions, getting held up at gunpoint. But it was a big step up from bartending, his previous job. 
While most restaurant profits hover around 40 percent, Chen said Dragon Kitchen cleared 60 percent.
 
“The takeout restaurant basically is work hard, long hours. You can make a better income. Buy materials by myself, then we cook it, we prepare. Just four people, work close together. I see co-workers more than my wife. The kids, I never saw my kids. The kids go to school at 7 o’clock, get back at 9, we’re still working,” said Chen.

He sold his takeout 10 years ago and bought a more upscale sit-down restaurant in Needham called Mandarin Cuisine.
 
A tight-knit world
 
Talking to Chen may seem easy, but in my experience, it’s difficult to walk in the front door of a takeout asking to interview workers and customers. He only opened up because I met him through Helen Chin Schlichte — or "Auntie Helen," as everyone in the Chinese immigrant community calls her. A native of Charlestown, she is very active both in Chinatown and in the city at large. Auntie Helen immediately understood my predicament.
 
“Even though you’re very Chinese and you can speak fluent Mandarin, they’re not quite sure if you’re from the IRS, or from Homeland Security," she said. "There are all kinds of reasons that they might be a little wary until somebody comes along to say, ‘Okay, this is a great project. This is one that would be terrific for you to participate in and for you to be a part of this larger community of takeout restaurants, and it’s okay to talk to her."
 
I asked Chen what he would have said if I’d come in the door of his old Chelsea takeout asking to interview him. “No,” he responded simply. “I say, ‘Nope, you kidding me?’ Eighty percent, or 90 percent, close the door for you. I already know that. First thing, they don’t know you" — and if they don't know you, they don't know why they'd do you a favor.
 
Furthermore, Chen said, "Most Chinese people don’t like [to] talk in public. They need to close everything in their mind. They’re not open. Even your father, your mother, won’t open anything for you, right?"
 
When asked for his explanation of that dynamic, Chen responded, "That’s the way we brought up. Like, why we eat rice?”
 
I started to wonder about the underlying social structures that hold the community together — and keep outsiders at a distance. So I called Baruch College professor Ken Guest, an anthropologist who studies Chinese immigrant communities living in New York.
 
“The Chinese restaurants are deeply embedded in an ethnic economy. And there is a sense of ethnic solidarity that people draw on to make a go of it. There’s a way in which that economic framework also shapes some of their notions of how they are in American culture, where they fit. It frames a lot of their business and social networks,” he said.
 
Getting connected
 
Networks were the key word here.
 
“Get somebody know somebody," Chen summarized. "From the back, not from the front. You walk in the front, you don’t get any answer. They will tell you they’re busy. No. Thank you. That’s it. Get somebody behind the owner. If you not Helen Chin introduce you, you won’t be sitting here. I tell the truth.”
 
It’s good advice. I found I had to work through existing networks — social service agencies, civic groups, food suppliers, menu printers, academics, filmmakers, hoping someone could introduce me to someone else who could get me in that proverbial back door.

But the project also needs the other half of the story: your half.
 
I found Philip Lodge, 17, at Yum Yum in Dorchester after school, waiting for his takeout order.
 
“Well, I got hungry after I left school, so I just had to eat a little meal before I go home," he explained. "A $2 plate of rice and ribs and I added crab Rangoon, fried shrimp and chicken teriyaki."
 
And it's not a rare visit. "I come like three times a week. My mom told me that their food was good so I started ordering my own plates, and I liked it," he said.
 
I bet you’ve probably been to a Chinese takeout before — you might even be a regular at one. Or maybe you went to one with your family growing up. If so, I want to hear your story.
 
If you have a story about a Chinese takeout, give Val and Planet Takeout a call at 617 477-8688. It's a free call in the Boston area, and the recording will explain what to do. You can also leave a story, upload photos or listen to others' stories at planettakeout.org.

BOSTON — Thursday is the first installment of Planet Takeout, Val Wang's exploration into Boston Chinese takeout joints as a nexus of community. She talks to Bob Seay about how she got the idea for the project. To share your experiences with Chinese takeout, visit planettakeout.org.

Planet Takeout is produced by Val Wang and brought to you by WGBH 89.7 and Localore, a national initiative of the Association for Independents in Radio.

 
May 18, 2012
 
BOSTON — Yelp isn't just for retail establishments and restaurants: Some people use the open review site as a home for their musings and warnings about Greater Boston's public transit.  First we looked at bus routes you might never have heard of. Now we turn to six stations you almost definitely know.

N.B.: Opinions are those of the Yelper and do not necessarily reflect the views of WGBH, WGBH News or anyone who isn't running late and fed up.
 

1. Porter Square

(35 reviews, 4 stars)
 
Brian D., Roxbury: You know that scene from "28 Days Later" when the army lady and those 2 kids have to get down the broken escalator to escape certain death by starving zombies? Yeah, they could have filmed that at the Porter Square T Station. ...

Wow. 

Vertigo. (3 stars)
 
Leighann F., Astoria, N.Y.: Things I can accomplish while riding the escalators down into the depths of the Porter Square T Station:

2. Reply to at least three emails.
3. Check-in on my Yelp App.
4. Read a couple of pages in a paperback book.
5. Listen to half of Beck's "Hell Yes" from the Guero album.
6. Stop at the half-way point of the decent, where there is a conveniently located Citibank ATM, and grab cash.

See, the stairs aren't so bad. It's all about multi-tasking. (4 stars)
 
Chris M., Medford: I was expecting to be greeted by angels when I finally got to the top, but there were only gangsters, who I am under the strong impression based on their yelling, that they were in fact, crunk. (3 stars)

2. Sullivan Square

(15 reviews, 3.5 stars)
 
Elizabeth G., Somerville: This place could be a film set for a movie about nuclear war. You know, the scene where they show what disaster hath been wrought on the planet.

One might come here for a pleasant morning stroll amid concrete flyovers. A stroll in which there are no crosswalks and no sidewalks. … The best part of Sullivan Square is the Schrafft building, with its neon-pink sign, the headquarters of a New England candy company of days gone by. To express your reverence, say it 3x fast, in a teenage-boy Beavis & Butthead tone of voice: "Schraaaaafft..."

One might also come here for the adventure of navigating an 8-way intersection in which approximately only 50% of the streets are labeled. It would be a great starting point for the Amazing Race — drop them here and see if they can figure out what country (decade, universe) they are in! (2 stars)
 
Jeffrey H., Washington, D.C.: Oh, and why else do I love Sully? Well there's a Dunkins and a convenience store inside. I never fail to laugh whenever I see the old crazy blonde woman behind the Dunkins counter scream, "GET OUTTAH HEYAH" when a pigeon flies in through her window and perches itself on a maple frosted coffee roll. Watching a crazy woman scream and throw cups at a bird-rat? Priceless. And hey, I thoroughly enjoy stepping over to the convenience store to buy some diet cokes and pop tarts whilst I watch the scum of Slummaville spend their paychecks on scratch tickets, megabucks, and Chiclets. (2 stars)
 
Dan W., Charlestown: Sullivan Square ain't pretty, but neithah's ya motha, kehd. (3 stars)  

3. Courthouse Station

(4 reviews, 3.5 stars)
 
Nathan R., Waltham: Buckminster Fuller's dream has come true at last! If you desire a glimpse of the shimmering neon space-transit of tomorrow, take a stroll down its gleaming center runway. Let it wash you in its soothing purple glow. 

Courthouse Station is a true testament to human folly, an astounding mixture of architectural brilliance and decadent waste that looks like the foyer of an interplanetary discotheque. It's the most inexplicably bizarre site in the entire MBTA service web.

Nobody's ever there, so bring friends and make love in it. (5 stars)  

4. Airport Station

(7 reviews, 4 stars)
 
The only non-tourist review:
Andrew H., Somerville: It's on the blue line. The blue line is the most unfortunate line of all the MBTA lines. The only reason that more people hate the green line than the blue line is because not many people ever take the blue line consistently enough to realize how truly miserable it is. … I lived a few blocks from this station for six months and learned its mysterious ways. 

The positive: 
1) Through the park, as you come up on the station, you can see the inbound trains approaching. If you feel like running, you can sometimes catch the train. 
2) It's a very pretty station.
3) The brand new parks on either side of the station are some of the best maintained parks in all of Boston and you can have a great time there. 
4) You can learn about Amelia Earhart on the walls. 
5) There are trains here that can take you away from Airport Station. 

The negative: 
1) You're on the blue line.
2) You live near the airport in a terrible neighborhood.
3) This place is PACKED with tourists.
4) You have to cross some crazy bridge to get to the non-airport side of the neighborhood if you just got off an outbound train here.
5) You're on the blue line.

I guess as I wrote this review I realized more that the Airport station itself isn't terrible, it's just the fact that you're on the blue line and in East Boston that's so terrible. Airport Station is an overall well designed place that the MBTA actually should have spent money on and did successfully. (3 stars)

5. Andrew Station

(6 reviews, 3 stars)
 
Chris W., Boston: Riding the T when we were younger the voice recording would say "entering Andrew" and the kids on the train always seem to find that funny and laugh. 

6. Copley Square

(4 reviews, 3.5 stars)
 
James B., Boston: This is a subway station. Subway cars arrive intermittently and take you from here to your destination, or at least somewhat closer to it. The station does this job well, unless of course the cars are delayed. However, this is not the fault of the station. (3 stars)

Carl Beane with WGBH News reporter Ibby Caputo, showing off his World Series rings during an interview in 2010.

In a 2011 conversation with Emily Rooney, Beane said he began covering the Red Sox as a sports reporter in 1977 and got the unexpected opportunity to call Fenway games after a one-time audition during spring training.

"I'm sitting in the booth about a half an hour before the game, down in Florida, the place is full and I'm thinking to myself, 'What have I just talked myself into?', because my PA experience is zero," Beane said.

"It's kind of spooky talking to you," Rooney said during their interview. "That voice is just so familiar, and here you are talking like a regular person. We don't think of you as a regular person. You are that voice from the booth, like the voice of God."

May 2, 2012

WGBH readers and listeners care about the MBTA: Your responses to our "How I'd Fix the T" survey hit the triple digits — and they weren't one-word answers, either. The suggestions and ideas ranged as broad and wide as the commuter rail network ... but some trends did emerge. So, with a tip o' the e-ink to Harper's, here's your MBTA Index.

Percentage of responses over 150 words: 19
 
Word count of longest response: 359, cut off by survey window
 
Distance of farthest-flung respondent from the State House measured in B branch Green Line cars: 105,171.89 *
 
… Distance in smoots: 1,393,920

Percentage of respondents wanting more service/no cuts: 31
 
Rank of "expand service" in WGBH's Facebook poll: 1
 
Number of mentions of an "urban ring" that would connect the existing lines: 6
 
Year that six communities entered a compact to start planning an "urban ring": 1995 **
 
 
Number of mentions of the phrase "Big Dig": 13
 
Dollar amount of suggested increase in the gas tax: 1¢ – 5.1¢
 
Number of responses suggesting a new T pass for "SUV baby carriages": 1
 
 
 
Number of criticisms of T employees' work ethic/customer service: 6
 
… of T employees' fashion sense ("wrinkled, untucked shirts"): 1
 
Proportion of T employees who are great, according to one respondent: 99 44/100
 
 
Ratio of comments about the bus to comments about the commuter rail: 10:7
 
… of the buses to the Blue Line: 20:1
 
Bus routes identified by name: 1, 52, 77, 87, 88, SL5
 
Mean proposed maximum wait for a bus, in minutes: 11.67
 

Number of respondents wishing fellow T users "a nice ride": 1
 

* B branch cars are 74 feet long. Sources: AnsaldoBreda, Kinkisharyo, Wikipedia for the train manufacturers.
 
** Source: Boston Redevelopment Authority.

BOSTON — A number of responses to our "How You'd Fix the T" survey mentioned other cities and countries that show how good a good transit system can be ... possibilities explored by WGBH's Phillip Martin in his story "How to Create a World-Class Transit System."

 

David Wilson, Cambridge
Uses the Red Line, Orange Line
I've lived in Zurich, Switzerland; Shanghai, China; and Singapore, and in particular Singapore and Zurich have remarkable public transportation systems. The key in both cities is that the cost of driving into the city has to be prohibitively high enough that it becomes burdensome not only to low-income individuals, but also high-income individuals. Tolls paid via transponder as you enter the city core in an automobile, which can be graded to be higher at peak traffic times, are a particularly effective way to do this, as Singapore and London have demonstrated. There should be no way to get downtown in a car without paying tolls. The vast majority of that significant revenue source can then be diverted to support the growth of public transportation.

It also seems to me that there are a lot of cities in the world which have successfully expanded their transportation grids in recent decades in a planned, coordinated and ultimately highly successful fashion. My impression (which admittedly is based only on casual observation, not any kind of research) is that the upper echelons of the T are hired from within. As a result, it seems likely that there is an endemic corporate culture of "this is how we do things" at the T. I think that it would be a worthwhile investment to bring in consultants from some of the world's biggest public transportation systems, like London and Tokyo and certain cities in continental Europe, as well as some of the cities in the US which have recently and successfully grown their own public transportation networks, like LA, and advise on how to coordinate and facilitate growth and sustainability within the system.

Julie Ecker, Boston
Uses the Orange Line
While recently in NYC subway fare was $2.25/trip and is good for a 2-hour window. I would change fare structure in Boston. Those who need connections from bus to bus or subway/bus should be able to ride one direction for one flat fare and not have to pay for each leg. Especially since poorer neighborhoods are more likely not to have subway and to have buses instead.

Mary Devlin, Washington, D.C.
Uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Commuter Rail
As a Massachusetts resident attending college in Washington, D.C., I've noticed how much better and more efficient the Metro is than the T. First of all, the rules against eating on the Metro make it extremely clean. Second, there are extended hours on the weekend. Third, there's cellphone service almost everywhere underground. And fourth, you know exactly when trains are coming and can download a cellphone app so you can see when the next train is coming. The T could definitely take a few lessons from the Metro.  

Jan Pechenik, Cambridge
Uses the Bus System, Red Line, Green Line, Silver Line
If you want to see a world-class public transportation system in action, go visit Hong Kong. The first thing I do would be to make the T much more convenient than it is now, without raising fees. Buses and trains should arrive every 5 or 10 minutes. Smaller buses and shorter trains for off-peak periods, but no need for schedules because you would never have to wait more than 10 minutes for a ride. Once you have the convenience problem fixed, you can increase the comfort level (e.g., slightly wider seats on train) and promote programs that encourage people to take the T.  

Joanne Fray, Lexington
Uses the Red Line
I would post clear maps showing the routes of the vehicles like the maps in the Paris Metro and the London Underground.  

Gerry Katz, Chestnut Hill
Uses the Green Line
Run it on a schedule — like every other urban train system in the developed world!

And one dissenting voice, from Gillian, in the comments on Martin's story:

I'm a little surprised you held WMATA in such high regard. The Metro is saddled with debt, has serious safety concerns and the ridership is hardly enthusiastic about the customer service. The Metro fiscal model is horrid. The sheer number number of employees as well as inflated salaries help make it one of the most expensive public transit systems in the country for riders. Research peak of peak fares, penalizing those who use Metro for what it was created for, commuting! Because of this the federal government subsidizes employee commutes or offers free parking so they don't have to shell out over $400 a month for commuter bennys. Each year Metro is faced with dwindling funding because of the "tri-state" reach and zero commited funding from either of the three districts. Having lived there for 6 years it was great to be able to go just about anywhere on Metro as well as have updates on boards in the station but it was a budgetary stretch each month and considering weather constrictions (heat, snow and rain), safety (theft and train crashes) as well as overcrowding and horrid attitudes by employees made it a D+ in my book. At least in Boston you get what you pay for: a less expensive system that isn't very extensive and not technologically advanced. If Boston can provide Metro service (at its best) and keep Boston-sized fares, I'd move closer to the city!  

 
BOSTON — Bay State Bike Week is coming up, the Hubway bike share stations have reopened for business and inaugural Boston "bike czar" Nicole Freedman is departing to plaudits: In the last 5 years, Boston has added over 50 miles of bike lanes and cycling has increased by 50 percent.
 
But there's a downside to the bike craze: increased tension, frequently, between drivers and bicyclists.
 
Traveling down the old cow paths
 
No one knows that better than bike commuter John Aslanian. Rain or shine, he puts on his helmet and rides from his home in Brookline to his office in Cambridge.
 
"I ride a bike for ease of commute. It’s a faster way to get from my house to my office," he said. Plus, "there is the fitness aspect."
 
But with the gain comes pain — or at least, some aches. Even with many new bike lanes, Aslanian still has to deal with streets that aren’t bike-friendly. And his biggest frustration is drivers who think the road is meant just for them.
 
"The roads were actually meant for horses and then they were meant for trolleys. So we’re all kind of using the same space," he said.
 
Other cyclists agree: Bikes and cars fighting over limited space leads to limited patience. Said cyclist Morgan Staples, "The infrastructure for Boston is dated and was made 100 years ago and not really made for today’s amount of traffic, so everybody kind of fighting for their space leads to a lot of tension."
 
Red light, green light, 1-2-3
 
The biggest complaint to WGBH was riders who don't follow the rules of the road.
 
Ask Cambridge driver Michael Purcell who the true road rebels are, and he points the finger at cyclists: "They don’t stop at red lights. They pretend that they are different than cars. So what are they? They are vehicles and yet—it’s hard to treat them exactly like vehicles."
 
"It's definitely an issue. We strongly believe that everyone should be following the rules on the road," said MassBike executive director David Watson. "But you have to keep it in perspective ... it's happening with everybody. We have a culture of incivility on our roadways."
  
However, Watson thought one typical driver complaint was tired. "The time is past where motorists can say 'I didn't expect anybody to be there' because we're there in growing numbers, and so there's a greater responsibility on everybody, not just the bicyclists, to pay attention to what's going on around them," he said.
 
One cyclist told WGBH that he doesn’t always follow the law — but that it’s actually out of courtesy.
 
"Sometimes I don’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign," said Lance Stephens, because it's easier for drivers "if I just keep moving rather than them having to deal with a cyclist who has stopped and is restarting."

Former Boston city councilor Tom Keane uses the Hubway system and pointed to the issue of awareness. "Between a bike and a car, bike loses, every time," he said.
 
Serenity … soon?
 
Even though plenty of locals own both bicycles and cars, peace can be a hard sell to the frustrated and angry. One woman told WGBH, "The cyclists are flat-out evil." We started gathering comments from Twitter on the bikes vs. cars debate but dropped the attempt due to the amount of profanity from drivers.
 
Aslanian admitted that some cyclists embrace a rebel image, but he keeps it in perspective: "A few decades it was popular to have a muscle car and go out on the drag strip."
 
He'll continue riding to work in his business suit, which he thinks is the best way to show that not all cyclists are rebels ... some just want to get to work.
 
"The more regular people like myself, that bike on a daily basis — the less appeal [there is] for it to be a rebel activity," Aslanian said.
 
And maybe they can unite against a shared foe. Said Keane, "Pedestrians, I think, are the bane of both drivers and cyclists."

"I would put in more runs per day. If the buses between my home in Medford and my workplace in Newton were reliable and frequent, I wouldn't be driving."
— Rachel Sommer, Medford
 
"Add more service and reduce fares. Ridership would increase, with increased revenue."
— Kenneth Brody, Sharon
 
2. Have the state take back the Big Dig debt
 
"The first thing I would do is get the state to re-acquire the Big Dig debt from the MBTA. The MBTA spends over $100 million every year just to service the debt, which is totally unfair to its riders who want or have nothing to do with the Big Dig."
— James Lee, Jamaica Plain
 
3. Raise the gas tax
 
"I would ask the state legislature to up the gas tax another 5.1 cents per gallon and dedicate that to paying down the T's debt and making it more efficient."
— J. F. Dargon, Wareham
 
4. Have better PA systems so we can hear what they're saying
 
"Simply fixing public address systems in stations and on trains and making sure that delays are communicated effectively would make traveling by T much more civilized."
— Alicia Toney, Stoughton
 
5. Improve fare collection
 
"I rode the T daily from Cleveland Circle to Coolidge Corner in 2011. Leaving Cleveland Circle, at least 50 percent of the time the drivers would wave us on and NOT collect fares. This would happen at all the stops until I got off! No wonder the T is broke!"
— Dr. Deb Sampson, Hancock, N.H.

As part of the WGBH News Focus week on the MBTA, we offered the chance to "talk to the top" on the radio on April 24 as MBTA general manager Jonathan Davis joined Emily Rooney in the studio to take calls and see some of the responses to our online survey. Among the questions he answered ...

- Why can't the T be like the Washington, D.C., metro?
- Why do we still print paper bus schedules every quarter?
- Why does rush hour service end so early?
- Why are there MBTA workers just standing around not doing anything?
- Have you considered sponsorship for lines and Charlie Cards?
- In 30 years, why haven't things changed?


> > LISTEN to the conversation.